Trump Says US Will End $4 Billion in Annual Aid to Israel at End of Year, Arms Sales Will Continue

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States will stop providing about $4 billion in aid each year to Israel at the end of this year, while Israel will still be able to buy American weapons. Trump announced the change in a phone interview with Fox News Channel on the morning of the midterm elections, hours before polls closed in races that will decide control of Congress.

Netanyahu raised the idea, Trump says

Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached him about ending the aid, and that the two leaders have been talking about it for a couple of years. "You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash," Trump said. "Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don't need it. And I was approached by Bibi Netanyahu, and we've been talking about it for a couple of years because it's a lot of money." He said Israel is a thriving country that no longer needs the assistance. Asked whether arms sales would also end, Trump said they would not. "We were giving them $4 billion, we are, but it gets cut off at the end of the year," he said, adding that Israel can buy whatever weapons it wants.

The current deal runs through 2028

The announcement leaves open how the change will work in practice. United States military assistance to Israel now flows under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016, a 10-year pledge worth $38 billion covering fiscal years 2019 through 2028. The package provides about $3.8 billion a year, made up of $3.3 billion in foreign military financing and $500 million for joint missile defense programs, and the money is still subject to annual approval by Congress. Trump did not say whether the agreement would be ended early or what role Congress would play. There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu's office, and the White House released no further details on the timing or the scope of the change. Netanyahu has spoken before about reducing Israel's reliance on United States aid. In May he told the CBS News program 60 Minutes that he wanted to taper United States support to zero over roughly a decade, a much slower path than the year-end cutoff Trump described on Tuesday.

Aid surged after the Gaza war began

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel in recent years. An academic study published last year found that the United States, under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel after the start of the Gaza war in 2023. Another study, from the Costs of War project at Brown University, put United States spending on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East at roughly $10 billion more over the previous two years. Trump also argued on Tuesday that aid to Israel has become a Democratic talking point in the midterm campaign, naming Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. In July, the House of Representatives voted 314 to 104 against an amendment that would have halted aid to Israel. A formal end to the aid would be a sharp break with a policy that has stood for decades, and it would take effect while voters are deciding control of Congress for the last two years of Trump's second term.